I've basically settled into Unity, but one constant that is kind of giving me agita is that in LibreOffice Calc (and Writer) ctrl-f does nothing. I can go to edit > find ... and the edit menu even suggests ctrl-f as a keyboard shortcut, but actually typing it doesn't do anything. ctrl-alt-f works fine. The only thing that doesn't work is ctrl-f. I had a really hard time getting settled with Unity (mostly trying to get my old Gnome-do and Compiz settings back) so I spent a lot of time monkeying with the Compiz Settings Manager. But I can't figure out where I would have unset/ overrode this. Plus, it isn't like ctrl-f does something unexpected. It just does nothing.

I also have this same problem, having come from OpenOffice (on Ubuntu and Windows). This is a 'feature', that I consider to be an annoying 'bug'. Some users clearly agitated for it. I'll see if there is a simple fix ..
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david6Nov 22 '11 at 2:40

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This is clearly a bug which I reproduced as well. The Edit drop menu clearly indicates <Ctrl>F initiates Find.
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fragosNov 22 '11 at 9:21

Ctrl-F does appear to be mapped to "Find" in the keyboard, but as @geoffrey noticed, it pops you to a find box in the toolbar that may or may not be visible
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AmandaNov 22 '11 at 23:20

The issue (as it affects me) is that 'Ctrl-F' does NOT open the Find & Replace dialog box. As a long term MS Office/OpenOffice user, that is what I expect when my fingers hit 'Ctrl-F'. The simple "find next" function is not as helpful ..
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david6Nov 23 '11 at 0:40

I voted this up, but let me say something in defense of LO. I like two things about the search toolbar: 1) it does not get in the way of text when you search (with the f&r box, sometimes the search term is hidden behind the box, or the box jumps all over the screen), 2) it's easy to search quickly both up and down (with the F&R box, you tick a box to search backwards, and sometimes you forget that box is ticked). I tend to use the simple 'search' function much more than find&replace, so I prefer the unobtrusive toolbar. Only negative in my view is that it takes up so much space on the toolbar.
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geoffreyNov 23 '11 at 7:10

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Okay, but then don't make ctrl-f go nowhere if the search bar isn't visible.
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AmandaNov 24 '11 at 1:53

Try this: go to View > Toolbars and check 'Find'. This adds a 'Find' dialog on the toolbar. When you click ctrl-f the cursor jumps to that toolbar, then enter the search term, and hit enter, or use the arrows to search up or down.

I'm kind of incensed that this worked, but it did. Why? Why hide the find dialog?
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AmandaNov 22 '11 at 23:20

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I'm realizing that I'm still not happy, so remapping ctrl-f to find and replace. In calc, ctrl-f doesn't switch focus to the find box so I do 'ctrl-f' and type something and I replace content. Not good.
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AmandaNov 24 '11 at 1:48

That seems to solve a different problem. ctrl-f is mapped to the toolbar find by default now. If you want to re-map it, doing that explicitly seems like a cleaner fix than killing your whole LibreOffice settings directory.
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AmandaJan 9 '12 at 20:31

I agree that deleting the settings is far from convenient. But the search window came back (and I don't see why a user should remap an existing key setting...). The mapping just didn't work, maybe my settings contained the disabling somehow? Anyway...
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markusNJan 13 '12 at 8:44